Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Not even two hours after I signed off until the New Year, you go breaking, bad.

A few thoughts before I really (hopefully) sign off until 2012.

A contributor mentioned that when there's an airline accident, they're forced to release tapes of the "black box" conversations and other pertinent records.

So, I'm wondering when we're going to hear the tapes between Operations Control Center (OCC), Metro's "nerve center," and the damaged trains regarding yesterday's mess. Will we see the results of the inspections of the 5000-series cars, which have a history of derailing? Will we hear the results of the "internal investigation" about the evacuation procedures?

Again, communications seems to have been a big issue.

with no information, we kept hearing radios squawk about "Plan B". but no one told us what "Plan A" was. @unsuckdcmetro @drgridlock

That's just an example. Many riders complained about being left in the smoky dark (smoke condition) for a long time with no word about what was going on or what to do. Radio problems?

Sadly, it's not bloody likely we'll ever hear those communications or have any other independent view on what happened. We'll just have to take Metro's word.

Besides, according to several Metro sources, the tapes from OCC have a way of disappearing when they make Metro look bad.

So onto something that should be easier to get from Metro, the infamous "what if there wasn't a Metro" """"study."""" Metro has only released an executive summary so far.

I've asked chief flack Dan Stessel for the full version of the $200,000 """"study"""" three times, and zilch.

Dan, like every other rider, I'm a 16-ccent investor in that, and I want to see it.

Me (12/14): Could I please have the full copy of the study recently in the news?Dan (12/14): Checking on its status…Me 12/15): How's the checking going?Dan (12/15): The text of the full report is being finalized. It will be released, most likely next week.Me (12/20 before all hell broke loose): status?Dan:(UPDATE 12/21): Checked on it this afternoon. It is still being finalized.

So they release an executive report of a """"study"""" that isn't ready for public consumption? What's being finalized?

Hmmm.

And finally, the whole mystery riders boondoggle. $252,000 (possibly $679,000) of your money spent on what exactly? It's not like things just need to be tweaked, and all will be well.

Here's what Greg had to say about that:

I know that in light of today's (12/20) egregious incident, the item below isn't as lurid, but I'm furious that Metro is spending public money to get feedback from system users. Evidently the tens of thousands of customer complaints it gets aren't an adequate source of information on what needs improvement.

As a taxpayer, I believe that the mystery shopper reports should be made public. These are, after all, merely observations made by the system-using public, so I don't see how any sensitive information could get disseminated.

And if it WERE disseminated, well, too goddamned bad!

My prediction as to when we'll see the mystery rider reports: Never.

At this point, it's a toss up as to who's is more opaque, N. Korea or WMATA.

And on that cheery note, I (hopefully) bid you very happy holidays and Happy New Year!

Update 14: From a very reliable Metro source "A brake disk (200lbs) broke free. Hit train behind it. The disk more than likely broke free and damaged that train but then looks like it possibly did damage to the train behind. There are either 8 or 12 bolts that hold the disk on. The bolts must have sheared off. Possibly inferior bolts from low bid contractor."

Monday, December 19, 2011

On Saturday night, at around 9:15 or 9:20, I boarded the Red Line toward Shady Grove. The car was sparsely populated, and at some point, at or near Ft. Totten, we all became aware of two tall, broad men wearing trench coats and ski masks.

They were dressed in black from head to toe, and all I could see was their eyes. They were black, but I don't see how anyone would be able to recognize them in a line-up.

One sat next to me, and glanced down at my shoes. I didn't return his look and looked out the window.

Within about five minutes, they walked over to two young black kids sitting at the back of the train behind partition.

One of the tall, shady-looking kids stood sentinel, and it was clear to me at this point they were up to no good, because his friend reached over and bent down and asked something of the kids sitting. I couldn't see much more beyond that due to the partition.

The tall kids in trench coats then got off at Brookland. The kids behind the glass stumbled over and informed a guy sitting across from me that they'd been mugged at gunpoint.

They said one of the muggers had leaned in, showed a gun, demanded that both kids give up their sneakers and iPhones, and instructed them not to get off at the next stop.

A good Samaritan to my left let them call their friends, and they got off at the next stop to make their way back, reportedly, to Brookland.

The good Samaritan asked the kids if they'd been followed onto the train from Silver Spring because the thugs asked them where they were from. There was some speculation the thieves followed the kids onto the train, but other than that, I can only speculate they were hit because they were sitting at the back of the train behind glass.

When I reached my destination, Dupont, I told the guy at the Metro booth what had happened, and he said "that's a damn shame" but didn't appear to do anything.

I'm not sure if the kids filed a report because they were in shock when they got off the train.

No one called the police while the thugs were there. No one took pictures, either. I don't know if they were actually carrying weapons, but no one got involved. I admit we were all scared, and when I saw the one thug standing sentinel, I knew something was going down, but I turned to look out the window to avoid eye contact.

The incident was frightening enough to make me decide to drive to Bethesda and take the Red Line in so that I can avoid taking it from Silver Spring in the future. This was absolutely ridiculous and scary.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Who brags about their escalators being 25 percent slower than normal escalators? Metro! That's who!

In case you can't make out the sign, it says:

Most escalators--like the ones you ride at shopping malls--travel at about 120 feet per minute (fpm). A Metro escalator travels at 90 feet per minute. We just think it's good to slow down, enjoy the view and be safe.

Whatever. Who comes up with this stuff, and how much do they get paid? I'll do it for half.

Assuming you find a working escalator, the slow speed definitely encourages a lot of people to walk. Apparently wear and tear increases if you walk a moving escalator.

Furthermore, I found this old report that actually included Metro, which "provides evaluations of special design features associated with escalators used in rail transit systems." I guess some of the findings could be outdated, but I doubt this one is.

Turns out slower escalators are dangerous.

The preferred design is a dual speed escalator. The 120 fpm speed should be used during the peak hours and 90 fpm during the off-peak hours. Even though the hourly capacity is not linearly related to speed, the increase in escalator capacity at the higher speed reduces problems of overcrowding at high volume stations. At low volume stations existing data indicates no real advantages to the higher speed. Escalators over 40 ft high (three level changes) should utilize the speed of 120 fpm to reduce extended travel time on escalators. Excessive travel times result in movement of passengers resulting in a hazardous operating environment.

Nice job Metro.

Update from a Metro escalator expert:

The code for escalators allowed a max speed of 125 fpm with A17.1d -2000 and earlier. A17.1-2000 and later sets the max speed at 100 fpm. The min. speed can not be less than 10 fpm. The early units in Metro had two speeds 90 fpm and 120 fpm because they were driven by two speed ac motors. The newer units have a variable frequency drive and so can be set to any speed. I believe that Metro uses 90 fpm because the early units could be made to run at 90 fpm by disabling the high speed contacts and running only on the slow speed. I think this was done because they felt it was safer and easier for people to get on and off ( especially older folks and people who are a little afraid of escalators). The slower speed also reduces wear and tear on the units.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Buddy here had a great time last night. I got on at DuPont at about 11:15 the other night, and he was already there and passed out. I got off at Glenmont, and he was still there. By the end, he had pissed himself.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

So WMATA paid $200,000 for a """"study,"""" the crux of which was to imagine what the DC area would be like if there wasn't a Metro!

Predictably, since this was done as a PR stunt by those ridiculously overcompensated PR peeps (all Sarles' cronies) who want more money for Metro, the conclusion was, of course, that the DC area would be a traffic hell hole (unlike now) and that huge swaths of downtown would be grim, paved parking lots--if Metro never existed.

Big if.

There are lots of opinions about how much mass transit should be funded, but Metro doesn't help the discussion be presenting a false choice like this. It's a pointless, counterfactual exercise. It's the Drake equation of mass transit, full of unprovable conjecture, aka BS.

Why?

Because there is a Metro (sort of), and even you folks along the Red Line have half a Metro half the time.

What I want to see is an independent study on what the region would be like if the existing Metro was better and worked like a real, live grown up mass transit system. Or, on the downer side, how much Metro's sucking retards the normal benefits one would associate with robust, functional mass transit.

Metro's doomsday "argument" is the same kind of thinking one finds in the "you're either with us, or you're against us" proposition. It's terrible, nonconstructive, black-or-white thinking with the added bonus of a not-so-veiled threat.

There is an argument for transit, but this is not how you make it.

Sadly, the PR stunt seems to have worked on some and here. Sure, they caveat their articles to a degree, but they basically repeat Metro's ridiculous, random, plucked-from-a-nightmare scenario, which is designed to propel this sort of insidious meme (repeated by many on twitter):

It's like Metro is a surly, abusive husband in a spaghetti stained tank top slouching in the glow of a TV set in some dingy apartment drinking too much beer and telling his downtrodden wife how lucky she is to have him.

Hey Metro, try a little charm for crying out loud.

Instead of telling us how much it would suck in a completely made up "without you" scenario, try to step up the service you ostensibly already provide because right now, it sorta sucks to be with you.

Footnote: Why is only the executive summary available to the public? We paid for the whole thing!

I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has noticed that Metro is becoming a pigsty.

There are a lot of things wrong with Metro, but one thing you used to be able to count on was that it was pretty clean.

Over the past year, I've watched Metro become more and more dirty. I have been in cars at all times of the day that are strewn with tons of garbage (mostly Examiner and Express), food, discarded liquor bottles and some things I don't even want to know about. I've seen a used condom twice in the past few weeks! Gross!

The other day at Farragut North, I saw either a very large mouse or a small rat scampering carefree down the track.

I do have to hand it to him though. He was moving faster than the train that was five minutes away, then eight, then 10...

But seriously, what's going on with all the filth?

What do people think? Are people more disgusting these days or has Metro slacked off on cleaning up?

Monday, December 12, 2011

Last week, as first reported by the Examiner, the American Public Transportation Association issued a ridership report saying that subway use around the country is actually INCREASING in all but three cities: Atlanta, L.A. and here.

Metro officials are full of excuses about why flagging ridership is not their fault.

On one hand, they blame the economy.

On the other hand, they're suing their insurer for $13 million because, as the Examiner reported, it hasn't paid for a "drastic drop in rail ridership and consequential loss of revenue" following the June 22, 2009 Red Line crash.

So which is it?

Fundamentally, I don't think it's either.

First of all, the economy in the DC area has been quite strong relative to the rest of the country. People are actually moving here because job prospects are better.

In my day job, I recently did a story about how a foreign business chose to open their first U.S. outlet here in the DC area because the economy is so much better than anywhere else in the country.

Hey Metro, it's not the economy, stupid.

And the Red Line crash?

I think it's doubtful that disaster alone would have caused riders to avoid Metro over a period of years had it been an isolated event. People don't stop flying because of an airline crash.

However, the crash didn't take place in a vacuum. It happened during a period of long-term, incredibly poor, unreliable and often unsafe service at ever increasing premium prices, with no accountability to the riders who pay for everything.

And it's not getting any better, just more expensive.

In that environment, people are going to eventually, and rightfully, look for other options.

I'm not optimistic Metro can turn things around while in such a stuporous state of denial, and after nearly three years of blogging about how badly Metro sucks, I don't know what it will take for them to finally get it.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

I've definitely seen some less-than-stellar parenting on Metro, and I've seen many tweets from people who've also seen it, which leads me to believe it's not that uncommon.

From Kate Woodsome:

It was a stressful day at work. Adults acting like children. I boarded the train and stood in the crowded aisle distracted by the office drama. Two of the seats near me were occupied by a young girl and her even younger brother. Another brother was standing up with their mom, who seemed tired from more than just the day.

A scowl punctuated her clenched jaw and furrowed brow, which moved only when she barked at her children. A bright orange smiley face sticker was on her cheek, the kind a kid might get from the doctor after a checkup. Her daughter wanted the sticker, and she started naming everyone she'd give it to. Among them was the lady in the striped dress. Me.

I shifted my stance to face the little girl and said, "You're going to give that sticker to me?"

"Yes!" she beamed.

"Nah. It looks good on your mom. It makes her cheek look happy."

The girl immediately lost interest in the sticker and focused instead on my outfit -- a long black and grey striped dress and bright green clogs. "I like your dress," she said. "And your shoes."

"Thanks. I like your skirt," I replied, pointing to her blue and green plaid skirt.

"It's my school uniform."

"You look official," I said.

"Official?"

"Yeah, official. You look like an official student."

She looked down at her skirt, smoothed it out, then tugged on her slouching socks.

"How's school going? Like it?" I wondered.

"We're learning Spanish," she said.

That apparently woke up her mom, whose eyes blazed as she snarled, "She don't know nothin'."

"Yeah, we can count," the girl said, and she and her brother supported each other as they stumbled from uno to diez. I learned that the girl was siete, seven; her brother cinco, five; and her other brother tres, three.

I was impressed and told them so. This excited them. And upset their mother. She yelled at them to shut up.

The three-year-old lurched toward me with big eyes, away from his mom. She yanked him back and raised her fist above his head, drawing her lips over her teeth. He cringed and the others just paused, watching.

I've seen this before. The Metro is everyone's and no one's home. Parents verbally abuse their kids there, threaten violence and, sometimes, actually commit it. Yet no one seems to notice. No one seems to care. But I do, and I'm always conflicted when I see an adult taking out their pain on an innocent.

"Your son's so cute," I told the mom, trying to break her from her trance, to make her aware that we were all there, watching.

"You can have him," she said, disgusted.

The sarcasm was lost on her daughter, who wrapped her arms around my legs and shouted, "No! I want her!"

Her brothers reached for me, too. "No! I do! I do!"

When a child hugs you, you have to hug back. But what do you do when that hug is an outright rejection of their own mother? When that hug could lead to a harsh beating once the train ride ends. I didn't want to provoke their mom any more, but I figured she was going to beat them whether I was kind to her kids or not. So I put my arms around the little girl stuck to my legs and smiled at her brothers. "You have each other. You have to love each other."

I used to be that little girl. The girl with the scared, desperate eyes, silently pleading with strangers to take me away. Nobody ever heard me, or if they did, they didn't respond. Because how do you help a child escape?

With care and warmth. You tell them they're cute and clever and funny. You tell them they're going to be okay, that life gets better. Even if you don't know that it will. Especially if you don't.

Anonymity can be as empowering as it is paralyzing. So shower them with love and then slip away. Because you're not going to be there when the hitting starts behind closed doors, so you might as well be there when you can.

According to DC's Child and Family Services Agency, you can report child abuse or neglect 24 hours a day, seven days a week to 202-671-SAFE (7233). There is a wait, and an automated menu to start, so if it's an emergency, call 911. If it's not, you will eventually be asked for the name, address, age and gender of the child; who is caring for the child; and the nature and extent of the abuse or neglect.This gets more difficult if you witness abuse on the Metro. A CFSA hotline worker cautioned that it is up to the individual whether to intervene in an abusive situation, and to bear in mind that you do not know how the abuser will respond. "The consequences will be yours. They can be good or they can be bad," she said.The hotline worker suggested it is best to alert a transit police officer or station manager. Make sure to give a detailed description of the abuser, and remember the train and car number.For more information, visit: http://cfsa.dc.gov/DC/CFSA

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Long time reader, first time writer. What the hell is going on with the Orange Line?

On Friday (and Monday), many PM rush trains were ending at West Falls Church. I'm not sure why, but as a Vienna rider, it was more than a little annoying, mostly because NO WORD at all was issued by Metro as to why. I saw a lot of people on the platform cursing Metro as well.

Maybe there's a good reason for doing for the service change, but it wasn't explained to riders at all.

The only thing I could find was this, which sounds like something pretty serious and, frankly, sorta scary. Is this the reason?

Via @whiteout_PSU No service to Dunn Loring on the next train? Come on WMATA @unsuckdcmetro http://pic.twitter.com/tJGS6Jve

Just what exactly are the people in the communications team getting paid for if it's not communicating a pretty significant alteration in the routine such as this?

It made me think of the quote you had from the board member about "perceived unpredictability." This REAL unpredictability is just what makes me want to give up Metro for good.

Oh, and that doesn't even take into account the obvious and UNANNOUNCED speed restrictions that pretty much slow the Orange Line down to a crawl between East Falls Church and Ballston over at least the latter part of last week.

What gives Metro? I gave you every benefit of the doubt as you tried to rebuild, but these little lapses are undoing the good you may or may not be doing during all the shutdowns. The little trust I had left in you is pretty much gone. I know I'm not the only one.

Another Metro mystery from anonymous:

Anyone know why the Red Line was not stopping at Dupont Circle yesterday? By my count three trains full of people went through without even stopping to let people on or off. Why?

I was annoyed enough this making me late to work with no announcements about delays or information on the website or email alerts, but I would have been really mad if I needed to get off at Dupont Circle but was forced to continue on.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Some takeaways from yesterday's Metro Board discussion on raising fares to close a $124 million budget gap:

"We are keeping the agency on a path of continued improvement." -- Carol D. Kissel, Assistant General Manager and Chief Financial Officer

It would seem riders and jurisdictions are being unfairly burdened with filling Metro's annual budget gaps. According to Metro, the pension plan for ATU 689 workers accounts for 65 percent of the base increase in Metro's costs. The average retiree's pension plan is worth $400,000, Metro said. There is NO employee contribution into that plan, Metro said. Who's gonna have the stones to get the union to face reality? ATU 689 likes to say "we make it work," but I think they mean "you."

Metro is planning for no wage increase in 2013, but they just shelled out a nine percent increase this year after a costly legal battle. I'm not sure how they plan to avoid a wage increase this time around given their track record. Maybe there was an agreement.

Despite stagnant-to-lower ridership, Metro had a revenue INCREASE between 2010 and 2011 of $54 million dollars, largely on your backs after taking you for $109 million more in 2011. That was offset by declining revenues in other areas, namely advertising. Who'd want to advertise on Metro, right? Oh wait, there's this outfit called Metroforward, and they're advertising EVERYWHERE.

Metro has 250 people involved in manual time keeping. Um, computers.

"This would mark the fourth year of stagnant or declining rail ridership. There is no good story yet about what's happening about the lingering aspects of the accident, [fare] elasticity and perceived unpredictability of the rail system during reconstruction. It doesn't bode well for us, and I would encourage staff to develop better data about what is happening with ridership." -- Board vice chair Tom Downs

Fare "changes and adjustments" means fare and parking increases. See the details of proposals here (starting on page 24). It was obvious from the discussion that the proposed fare hikes are going to meet with a lot of resistance from the Board's diverging interests. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. Dig deeper.

Some Board members don't understand the current fare structure. I'm not sure (insert genius) would either.

"Our timing and distance [fare] system is actually a very good system." -- Kissel

Anyone (tourists) still using paper fare cards, could be be completely effed based on a rather arbitrary ring called a "visitor zone" idea. Paper fares (non SmarTrip) within it would be $3, while fares outside would be $6. Rosslyn to DC-$3; Clarendon to DC-$6. Just cough up the five bucks for the SmarTrip already.

250,000 riders are "price insensitive," Metro said. It was unclear just exactly who those riders are. Peak of the peak was meant to serve two purposes: raise revenue and reduce rush hour crowding. It worked bigtime to raise revenue, but did little to shift riders' habits, perhaps because a good chunk of riders--the conventional wisdom is 40 percent of Metro riders are Feds--have their rides heavily to completely subsidized and don't care about peak of the peak fares. Starting Jan. 1, if the transit benefit is not extended, this cohort will become way more concerned with price. Did Metro not know there was this group before instituting the insulting peak of the peak fares?

Things like paying for overtime (fatigue management), adding police on buses, preventative maintenance on the escalators and improving the radio system would be, in essence, up to the individual jurisdictions as to whether they want to fund them. This could end up with some wacky negotiations.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

A recent post on station managers testing positive for illegal drugs shook out some interesting commentary from Metro folks.

Drug and alcohol tests can be done randomly or can be triggered by, according to Metro, an incident "in which a person has died or is treated at a medical facility or where there has been property damage resulting in the towing of a vehicle or the removal of a transit vehicle from revenue service."

Fender benders or other slight mishaps would not seem to fall under this definition.

A while back, I asked Metro, via a Freedom of Information request (PARP in Metro-ese), for the number of employees who'd been enrolled in the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a "confidential joint labor management program offering counseling and referral for employees who have substance abuse problems in addition to marital, emotional, family, or financial concerns which may cause poor attendance, unsatisfactory job performance, or create safety hazards for the employee, co-workers, or the public."

Metro declined.

Their reason for declining:

In order to respond to this request, we would have to review approximately 7,500 safety sensitive files and cross reference employee numbers with the random selection list.

OK...

But they did say the following:

344 safety sensitive employees [not station managers] were tested for alcohol from February 17, 2011 through August 17, 2011 and 836 safety sensitive employees were tested for drugs from February 17, 2011 – August 17, 2011.

What was interesting was what I heard about the so-called random drug testing from Metro employees.

One guy we talked to--a former bus driver (safety sensitive) now working in another capacity--said that he was well known as a teetotaler who was guaranteed to test clean. He said that when it came time for Metro to meet its quota for the number of people to be "randomly" tested, they'd always come around to him.

He said the testers would look at him closely in the eyes and smell his breath "just to make sure," and then ask him to give a sample.

The worker alleged that if Metro really randomly tested "safety sensitive" positions, they'd have to shut the system down because of all the positive test results.

Another worker, also an abstainer, confirmed that he was often asked to give samples while others were never seemed to have to.

If you're a part of the clique, the rules don't apply to you. I knew a lot of operators, drivers and others who were routinely seemed out of it, but they never were caught and punished. Drug testing is a joke to a lot of people.

They added that getting around drug testing was usually done by getting a heads up when the drug testing was coming or by making sure the sample they gave was never actually tested.

Another Metro worker said:

I have gone years without a random. Then all of a sudden, the guy just senior to me will get a call for his random. Then, the next day, I get the call. Then, I hear the guy junior to me got the call.

Not random in the least.

I am guessing they decide to test certain departments and then pick three or four guys in a row off of the roster for tests.

Yet another, now retired, worker in a highly technical field said a friend of theirs smoked pot in their free time, but never tested positive. This led them to the following conclusions:

a) They aren't really submitting any samples for testing.b) They are only submitting a certain percentage of the samples -- either randomly or based on the employee's behavior/appearance.c) Whether they are testing some or all samples, the 'tolerance' or threshold for THC may be set fairly high.

They added:

I would have no problem telling you if I thought that the people at Metro were a bunch of drug-addicted alcoholics, but to the best of my ability to tell, that's not the case. In the many years I worked at Metro, I don't think I ever saw one person obviously high or drunk.

I take that back -- early on, there were two guys, one an alcoholic, the other I'm not sure -- some hardcore drug problem. Both went through rehab and both got caught again and were fired. Contrary to popular belief, they never were able to get their jobs back. Some do, but many do not. It depends on who you know and if both management and the union officers like you.

If you want to read the official Metro line on drug testing and the surprising repercussions of testing positive, read this (PDF).

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